Illegible Black Boyhood: Black Introverted Men (Re)Membering Their K-12 Schooling Experiences

• In Event: Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Black Student, Family, and Faculty Experiences

Abstract

This paper explores the schooling experiences and memories of nine Black introverted men. Grounded in theories of quiet and BlackBoyCrit, the researchers utilized phenomenology to capture the essence of their retroactive experiences, and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as the analytical strategy. Preliminary data suggest that schools served as sites of racial/gender socialization where Black male introversion was pathologized, problematized, and exploited. Overall, introverted Black boys were often misread and made illegible in U.S. schools, namely, because they did not fit into prescribed conceptualizations or historical caricaturizations of Black masculinity. In this way, this work challenges the anti-Black, essentialist perspectives, misperceptions and projections of Black men and boys that inundate schools, in order to see and be otherwise.

Authors

• Amber Neal-Stanley, Purdue University

• David C. Stanley, Purdue University

• Taharka Anderson, University of Texas at Austin

• Caleb A. Sewell, University of Pittsburgh